Project Password

Taking advantage of the weak algorithms used to protect MS Project files comes Project Password, a small utility that helps you recover forgotten passkeys from MPP and MPT files.

Probably the first thing you should know about Project Password is the fact that it makes it possible for you to remove passwords from files generated by all the versions of Microsoft Project, including the newest of the bunch, MS Project 2016.

While the passwords from 2003 version files are recovered almost instantly, MS Project files that come from the later editions require you to wait for a short while, or, in the case of files created with the 2007-2013 versions of the aforementioned program, they can't be recovered, but only removed.

While expert users might be interested in the advanced technicalities about how Project Password uses highly optimized code for performance enhancement reasons and that it comes with support for 64 simultaneous processing threads, novice users will simply want to jump right in and recover their passwords from MS Project files.

This said, you will find that working the program is neither hard nor easy, but one thing is for sure, almost anyone can recover their MS Project password without much practice and technical skills. The tool's interface is on the minimalist side, with a top toolbar and a Log panel on the bottom part.

The top toolbar is home to a couple of functions, but you will mostly use the Options and “Open...” features the most. To recover or remove a password, simply open your MPP or MPT file into the utility, fill in the new password for your MS Project file, write the protection passkey and you are all set.

While not the most spectacular tool you can have on your system, Project Password can prove its worth when you need to remove or recover passwords from your MS Project files.